Here is another update regarding Social Security. PFFI President Ron Davies, PFFI Attorney Alan Herzfeld and I met with State Controller Director Brandon Woolf, State Social Security Manager Rita Foltman and Special Deputy to the Attorney General Dave High on Tuesday, November 29th.
We were informed that the Controller’s office has identified 171 employers in the State that could have employees that fall under the definition of Firefighter as contained in the State code. They have mailed surveys to all of these employers to confirm eligibility and have only received about 2/3 of them back so far. One of the very large hurdles they are facing is investigating consolidations, mergers, dissolutions and contracts for services that have taken place in these jurisdictions over the past 30 years and making sure all eligible employees are part of the voting process. Another factor that they are looking at for eligibility is that the date of 10/1/1980 is when SS taxes began to be withheld from most FF’s in the State. Once all eligible voters are identified, The Controller’s office will begin to send out letters to all jurisdictions notifying them whether they are eligible or not. At this point, the Controller’s office has identified approximately 733 eligible voters. I have a ballpark number of 892 based on all of the FRF Departments in the State. We are hopeful that their number will fall more in line with ours as the missing surveys are returned.
As far as timelines and the vote process go, they must give a 90 day notice to all eligible voters of when a referendum vote shall be held. If any eligible voters are deployed military personnel, there must be an additional 60 days added to notice of the vote. The Controller’s office informed us that they have identified 3 deployments in the State and have confirmed that all three of them have returned. Brother Gardner subsequently has been deployed as of this morning. So it appears at this time that the notice timeline will be 150 days. The Controller’s office is still moving forward with a statewide referendum vote. We gave them factual information to consider to hold a “deemed” vote. (This would be an entity by entity vote for each jurisdiction) Information we provided them was that there are 22 FRF Departments in the State and that 11 of them hold less than 3% of the voting population in each location and actually 7 of those 11 hold less than 1.5% of the vote based on our numbers for eligible voters. This becomes problematic as smaller departments may not and have not been given the opportunity to negotiate the ongoing 6.2% employer’s portion and the 3 years, 3 months & 14 days of the back pay due to the employer as well. We also offered to assist with the financial burden that could come from holding the vote by assisting with ballot printing, envelope printing as well as postage to send ballots to all eligible voters. They assured us that they will take all of the information under advisement and get back to us if that option would be considered.
We were also notified that addresses for all voting members will be from the database at the PERSI office. Please be sure to contact PERSI or sign on to your account to confirm your current address is on record there or you may not receive a ballot during the voting period. We also need to make certain that the proper forms are filed in timely fashion to be eligible for the back pay if a vote would result in getting out of SS. Also if back pay is granted, the Employer’s portion is taxable upon receipt. Another critical part is that any ballots not returned will be counted as a vote to be out of SS, in other words, if your ballot is lost in the mail, your vote will be to get out of SS even if that was not your selection.
Once the Voting period is determined, there will be education provided from different entities explaining the vote, and ramifications of a yes or no outcome. They will attempt to hold these educational opportunities around the State, and we are hopeful that there will be multiple days offered to fall in line with our shift work schedules and the ability for all to attend. There is likely to be a class held in the Coeur D’ Alene area, one in the Boise area and one in the East, either Idaho Falls or Pocatello. Education should include effects of the Windfall Elimination Provision (WEP) & the Government Pension Offset (GPO) provision within Social Security, the loss of disability coverage if removed from SS, The effects on your PERSI retirement elections involving SS as well as the removal of credits in the event of a vote to be out of SS.
Please be thinking of questions you would like to have answered and if you could, forward them to me so that we can get a head start in getting factual answers when these educational forums are held.
As always, If you have questions, you know how to reach me.
Fraternally,
Tom Lovell
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